(Our movements and news, from February 19th to March 12th, 2020)
Cat Tales and crew continued to enjoy Ste. Anne, Martinique, with trips into Marin, hikes to Saline Bay, and happy hours with Changes, Clarity, and Denis and Arlene Webster ashore. After a wonderful lunch at the Pirates’ Restaurant at the “Wobbly Dock”, we got invited to see Denis and Arlene’s tidy apartment up the hill behind the restaurant. Denis and Arlene sold “Tiger Lily II” a couple years ago but still enjoy their old stomping grounds by renting an apartment. We can see, that they have a safe and reasonable alternative to traveling to and from a boat, typically with groceries and boat repair equipment and kitch. Actually, it reminded Dawn and me of a very similar apartment we rented in Pointe-a-Pitre back in the 1990s: a long room with bathroom near the door to the common hallway, a bedroom, and a balcony kitchen.
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| Dinner in Saint Anne with Denis & Arlene, Chris & Fran, and Rick & Deb |
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| Denis & Arlene’s kitchenette outside on the balcony of their apartment in Martinique. This is Denis and Deb (s/v Clarity) |
It was soon time for a change, and on February 24th, Dawn and I checked out of Martinique with the computer at Snack Bou Bou (possibly with a cheater chicken and a tank of dinghy gas), and left the anchorage the next day for Rodney Bay. Customs at Rodney was easy, but the Immigration lady was absent, so we sat at an extended lunch and beer break with John Fallon, s/v Stoppknot and Mike White, s/v Jackfish, and got all caught up on their news. Indeed, every time we got to shore, we could find these two eating lunch or ice cream, but at different venues. However, we did finish up the formalities and paperwork eventually - which included a visit to a Health Department office in the Rodney complex. Interestingly, there was very little discussed regarding any new bugs, though I did get info on the island’s success in fighting the Dengue mosquito. Success or not, we were visited by night mosquitos every night we were anchored off of Reduit Beach, in the bay.
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| A group of us hiking from Rodney Bay over the mountain and down into Cas en Bas, Saint Lucia |
We also found our friend John, of s/v Manana, and connected up with him, Jenny of s/v Tanglewood, and Don of s/v Fido for a hike over to Cas-en-Bas. It was a lovely afternoon, though a bit strenuous for Don’s newest hip.
On our way to check out of Rodney on March 1st, we were lucky to again catch John and Mike, and also captured Robin Unwin as he went by, and very happily got our visit in with him.
That evening, we sailed down to a little cliff-sided bay called Canaries, to get a 2 hour head start on the trip to Bequia. The sail the next day was lovely, with very much north in the wind angle. Indeed, there was not much of a wind shadow down the west side, but for a half hour at the far south corner. Interestingly, in the channel to the south of St. Lucia, we found, through AIS, that s/v Changes was approaching from the north. Both boats had enjoyable sails, but with Changes motoring further than us, as he chose to be closer to the island, with more of a wind shadow. The motoring took them, at 6.5 knots, far ahead of us, and they arrived in Bequia at least 45 minutes early.
The next evening, we caught up with Rick of s/v Clarity, who was solo after Deb flew home to help out with a sister with some medical trouble. Rick, with Chris and Fran of s/v Changes, joined us for a few evenings on Bar 1, the floating bar. Rick, however, wanted us to tour some of our favourite Bequia hikes with him, and we quickly organized one to Ma Peggy Rock, then another, two days later to the park above Cinnamon Gardens. We enjoyed a great meal after that one at the Firefly Restaurant (and pool), being joined by Chris and Fran, as well as two new friends, George and June of s/v Fathom This.
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A group youngsters celebrating a 40th birthday party with an ‘80s theme at Bar One in Bequia
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| After a good hike up to Peggy’s Rock in Bequia, we stopped to enjoy the view and a break before doing the treacherous downward hike. |
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| Another gorgeous view of Admiralty Bay from Ma Peggy’s Rock! |
One of the things we were intending to do while in Bequia, was to organize a group of sailors to again go for a day-charter on the Friendship Rose, as we had last year. We were getting pretty well set up for it, and Dawn and I paid the fee along with a couple other boats, and even asked for more sailors to join us on the morning net. All was going well, when, on Wednesday, March 11th, the morning VHF net, somebody reported that the main island, St. Vincent, had its first verified case of Covid-19. And, with canceling the Friendship Rose trip and many hops later, we were on the move with fire on our heels. Well, all for now.
TECHNICAL
While we were slamming away to Pointe-a-Pitre earlier in the season (fun sail, actually), Dawn informed me that salt water was finding its way into the starboard hull through a side port (window). Later, as we were returning south, she said a port-side port was also leaking. We took the time to open all four of the ports, and Dawn cleaned the salt and corrosion deposits to try to get better seals on these windows. However, the gaskets on the open windows looked like crap. Then, as we attempted to sail in heavy seas to get around Diamond Rock to Ste. Anne, solid green seas were hitting the giant, wrap-around windows of the salon, on the port side. We tracked that down and realized we had a lot of trouble.
While in Ste. Anne, we traveled into Marin, and purchased gasket, neoprene cement, and a giant tube of black Sikaflex 295UV.
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| Dawn digging out the gasket that Laurie had reinforced ages ago with 5200 glue. |
We replaced the gaskets on all 5 port windows, and were happy with the job. Then, I went to work on about a metre of the edge of the salon window, manufacturing tools and improvising to dig out old calking as much as we could. The interior fill was some kind of foam tape, about 5 mm thick and at least 30 mm wide, with the true seal and glue on the outside of that. Once satisfied with a deep enough opening on the outside edge, we taped up the area with great amounts of paper and tape, using old editions of Caribbean Compass. Then, together, we attempted to squirt the Sikaflex into the edge. It did not work, which was no surprise, but I had gloved up, and had various tools on hand. Both the West stir sticks and a flexible plastic spatula for spreading filler worked just fine for getting at least 4 mm of the black stuff in, and within two hours the removal of the tape made the seam look Bristol-fashion.
We also had been having trouble with our baseboards. Leaking windows and poor maintenance (mostly while under charter, before we had taken ownership, I swear) had taken their toll on these long, 4 mm thick boards, causing them to delaminate. I had found, by accident a shop called Caribbean Woods in Bequia on the way up the island chain, and upon our return, we spent 2 hours removing the boards and took them ashore for new cuts. The fitting, staining, and 3 coats of varnish are done, and the boards are at present waiting to be glued back on.
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| Ringo of Bequia Caribbean Woods cutting plywood in baseboards that would exactly fit into the spaces onboard Cat Tales. Laurie is here in the background getting the wood measured for the cuts. The price was very reasonable and we’re looking forward to our baseboards back in place next season. Dawn resisted the urge to help this young man pull his pants up! |
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| Our new baseboards, all sanded and varnished, are awaiting their installation when we return to Cat Tales. |
